Deadfall Trail

2009

Action / Horror / Thriller

Synopsis

The tough, no-nonsense Julian and his more laid-back friend John are a couple of veteran campers who decide to embark on a no-frills expedition into the deep Arizona wilderness. Obnoxious troublemaker and blundering tenderfoot Paul tags along. However, things go horribly awry after John gets seriously wounded and the subsequent pressure causes Julian to degenerate into a ferocious primal state.

The tough, no-nonsense Julian and his more laid-back friend John are a couple of veteran campers who decide to embark on a no-frills expedition into the deep Arizona wilderness. Obnoxious troublemaker and blundering tenderfoot Paul tags along. However, things go horribly awry after John gets seriously wounded and the subsequent pressure causes Julian to degenerate into a ferocious primal state.

Director

Cast

Tech specs

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by jacobjohntaylor11 / 10

Awful

This is the worst horror movie of all time. It has the worst story line. It is slow and not scary at all. 4.1 is not a good ratting. But this is such an awful movie that 4.1 overrating it. It is crap. I give it 1. The ending is awful. If I want to get scared I will watch Deliverance. This is a pooh pooh movie. The acting it not very good either. This is one of the worst horror movies I have seen. Do not waste your time. Do not waste your money. Do not see this awful movie. It is just a big pile pooh pooh. It is pooh pooh with pee pee inside it. It is so slow. And so not scary. I can not believe how not scary it is. There are better movie out there like Troll 2. I mean that. I really do.

Reviewed by kapelusznik186 / 10

Survival of the fittest

***SPOILERS*** Taking a three week hike through the wilds and deserts of Arizona three survivalists Julian Paul & John, Shane Dean Cavin Gray & Slade Hall, soon confront a matter of life and death when John due to the first time at this, surviving in the wild, butterfingered Paul slipping up and causing him to get stabbed by a wild bore trap that Julian set up to get food. Now with an injured person to care and look after both Julian & Paul's troubles have only began with the unfriendly forest and it's inhabitants slowly closing in on them.

Living off the fat or gooey of the lands by eating bugs and worms as well as needing desperately needed medical help for John the two soon start to turn at each other in them accusing each other of not doing enough to get themselves out of the mess that they now find themselves in. Even though it was the rookie Paul who caused all this trouble he seems to be taking the high road in as if he's the one who's the injured party not the barley hanging on to life Paul. As the tension between the two survivors-Julian & John- reach a fever pitch when Paul now within moments of suffering a painful death in the wilds is peacefully put out of his misery by a kind and caring Julian smashing his skull in with a bolder before he has to suffer any farther.

Now with the two remanding survivor of this trip in the wilds going after each other for reasons that they can only explain it's only a matter of time before one or both end up dead: Either by killing each other or dying of exposer or hunger in the wild. ****SPOILERS**** It's the far more experience Julian who despite everything that Paul does to kill him who ends up alive even though by the time he's discovered by a search party he completely lost it and is ready for a lifetime stay in a mental institution. As for Paul by then he's completely out of the picture or movie in him trying to go on his own and ending up nowhere.

P.S Ther's a very interesting scene with a drugged up, who had couple of uppers hidden in his shirt, and out of his skull Julian having a jolly good time naked as a jay bird splashing and frisking around in a local stream with Mother Earth played by the sexy Katrina Matusek who's fun was interrupted when the drugs wore off.

Reviewed by bob_meg9 / 10

Extremely well-made for a little bitty indie

I have to agree with the other, few, reviewers here....why this film
has barely a "4" rating is beyond me. It's about twice that good. Not
only is it an interesting story, the characters are well-drawn and
complex, the action is very well staged and performed, and even the
special effects are creepy and effective.

Julian and John (Shane Dean and Slade Hall) are well-worn survivalists.
Their idea of a kick-ass weekend is to walk for a few days into Arizona
desert with nothing but a couple bottles of water. Julian seems to have
taken these treks a bit more seriously over the years, and balks when
John invites his younger loud-mouthed bud Paul (Cavin Gray Schneider)
along for their latest adventure into the Arizona Coconino (?) forest
(a new one on me, but a very cool location).

There's good tension between them as Julian and Paul constantly
tear-down and one-up each other with John desperately trying to
referee. Much like "Deliverance," however, the trio encounter an
unexpected turn of events that has them fighting for their lives for
two-thirds of the film.

I'd never seen any of these actors before, and I was extremely
impressed with all of them, particularly Shane Dean's Julian, who takes
a role that could have easily been written off into crazy-ville and
instead makes it compelling and oddly tragic.

What really blew me away were the dream and drug-infused (via peyote,
of course) sequences. For a low-budget movie, these were extremely
creepy and vividly rendered.

The ending is chilling, and not easy to shake. The only minor quibble I
have with the film is many of the insider survivalist techniques.
They're not really "explained" very well, and there's ample opportunity
to do so, given that Paul's character is a newbie.